J. R. R. Tolkien's lord's prayer and hail mary

care, verb do, make. The Etymologies lists a stem kar- make, do or make, build, construct (LR:362). A Quenya verb karin I make, build is quoted; the same verb (in plural form) occurs in WJ:391, in the phrase i karir quettar ómainen, those who make words with voices. (The difference in spelling, kar- rather than car-, is of no importance; this persistent inconsistency is found throughout Tolkien's post-LotR material, and in theory both c and k represent the Tengwa calma in the "original manuscripts".) The form karir (carir) exemplifies the plural form of the aorist tense, in this case used to denote a "timeless truth". Car- is an example of a so-called basic verb, formed directly from a root (in this case kar-) without adding any ending (like the very frequent verbal endings -ta and -ya). In the primitive language, basic verbs could receive the ending *-i associated with the aorist (though whether this ending actually forms the aorist, or it is just a kind of stopgap and the mere absence of another ending indicates that the verb is to be understood as an aorist, is not entirely clear). In Quenya, final short *-i in the primitive language came out as -e (cf. for instance are day from primitive ari, LR:349 s.v. ar¹-). The primitive aorist *kari likewise became care as in the text before us, but if one adds any ending so that *-i is not final, it retains its original quality: hence plural karir (carir) rather than *karer. As for semantics, the difference between aorist care, cari- and the continuative/"present" tense *cára may perhaps be compared to the distinction between English does as opposed to is doing (or makes vs. is making). If we have correctly interpreted the sentence na care indómelya as a subject-less construction *wish that [one] does thy will, it becomes clear why the aorist is used here: Much as in the phrase i karir quettar, where the idea is that the Elves (always, permanently, generally) make words, the idea is here that God's will should (always) be done. The aorist denotes an "indefinite" action, unlimited or unmarked as to time. On the other hand, *na cára indómelya with the continuative form of car- would perhaps rather be a prayer for a specific situation, expressing a wish that God's will is being done in one particular matter. – Not all of the aorist forms in the text before us behave quite like we would expect from other examples. Peculiarly, the ending -e does not seem to become -i- when an ending is added. One example of a "well-behaved" aorist has already been quoted several times: The late source reproduced in WJ:391 (ca. 1960) indicates that the plural aorist of car- is carir (there spelt karir). This agrees with much earlier material, far predating the text before us. Yet in the Lord's Prayer, where what is essentially the same verb occurs with a prefix, we find the form úcarer (q.v.) Why not *úcarir? Likewise, apsenet "[we] forgive them", probably another aorist, might be expected to appear as *apsenit instead; because of the suffix -t them the original ending *-i is not final and therefore should not change to -e. Yet these examples are not unique. In SD:290, reproducing a source from ca. 1945-46, we have the strange form ettuler for *come forth. Again we might expect *ettulir instead, according to the system Tolkien had used in the Etymologies (of ca. 1935+; LR:395 s.v. tul- has tulin rather than *tulen for I come) and the early LotR drafts (cf. sile vs. pl. silir rather than *siler in RS:324). The published LotR contains no example of an aorist, but interestingly, the forms carnemírië red-jeweled and airetári holy-queen that do occur in this work seem to display the same phonological oddity: The e of carne and aire represents primitive i (ancestral forms karani red, *gaisi holy), and where it is not final it "ought" to remain i. These examples, already discussed in the entry aire above, should evidently not be seen as casual "mistakes" made by Tolkien. Rather it seems that in the latter half of the forties and in the early fifties, his evolution of Quenya was in a phase where the original quality of -e descended from primitive short -i was nowhere preserved. Perhaps he imagined that extensive analogical leveling had taken place, so that though original -i "properly" became -e only when final, the new quality of the vowel was eventually introduced also where it was not final. Hence carir make as the pl. aorist of the verb car- was changed to #carer because of analogy with care makes (itself < *kari). But it would seem that Tolkien later (not later than 1959-60) changed his mind yet again and reestablished the earlier system, since the aorist karir/carir rather than **karer reappears in a source dating from about 1960 (WJ:391). Likewise Tolkien changed carnemírië to carnimírië in the revised edition of LotR (1966). Airetáre was kept in this form and not altered to *Airitári, but as we have already discussed, the initial element was reinterpreted to mean sanctity rather than holy.

cemende, inflected noun: (as?) on earth. The Silmarillion Appendix has an entry "kemen 'earth' in Kementári; a Quenya word referring to the earth as a flat floor beneath menel, the heavens". In the Etymologies, the stem kem- is defined soil, earth, yielding the Quenya words "kén (kemen)" (LR:363). This probably does not mean that kén has an alternative form kemen. When Etym. was written, the Quenya genitive ending was -(e)n, only later changed to -o, q.v. In some cases the words in -en are explicitly identified as genitive singulars; for instance, ailin pool, lake has the "g.sg." ailinen (LR:329 s.v. ay-). As for the stem kem-, Tolkien probably meant the Primitive Quendian word for soil, earth to be *keme, producing Common Eldarin *kêm (with endings *kem-). In Quenya *kêm became kén because High-Elven did not permit final -m, so that it had to be changed to the closest "permissible" sound, namely -n. Yet Quenya allowed medial m, so in this position the consonant remained unchanged; compare the stem talam producing Q talan floor, plural talami (LR:390). Hence in Etym. the word for earth is kén with a genitive singular kemen. As mentioned above, Tolkien later changed the genitive ending to -o, so we would expect kemen to become *kemo. However, the genitive kemen appeared in the narratives as part of Yavanna's title Kementári Queen of the Earth, literally *Earth's-Queen. Perhaps Tolkien was unwilling to change this to *Kemotári. This may be the reason why he reinterpreted kemen, making it the nominative form rather than the genitive; this would require nothing more dramatic than postulating an "extended" stem *kemen- (formed by means of ómataina, sc. reduplication of the stem-vowel [WJ:417], and a suffixed -n). Hence Kementári could stand and still be translated Queen of the Earth; the literal meaning had only changed from *Earth's-Queen to *Earth-Queen, with minimal semantic impact. – Kemen, cemen here appears in the strange inflected form cemende. This might seem to be a locative form of some kind, though it differs from the normal, well-attested locative in -sse (that also occurs in this text; see lúmesse). It is unclear whether the ending is -de or longer -nde (if the latter, it is here simplified to -de since the word already ended in -n); see Erumande. If the case in -(n)de is not a locative, it must be some kind of "comparative" case, indicating that cemende and Erumande are being compared to one another ("on earth as in heaven). It is interesting to notice that an ending -ndon signifying as or like occurs in some "Qenya" poems from the early thirties: wilwarindon as a butterfly, taurelasselindon like leaves of forests (MC:213-215; compare wilwarin butterfly, #taure-lasseli forest-leaves). It could be that -nde in the text before us is a later variant of this early -ndon. [In VT43, cemende is interpreted as cemen + -se, the latter element being a short locative ending which turns into -ze > -de following n. As I point out elsewhere, this development seems pretty ad hoc; normally ns would be expected to turn into a double ss, not nd.]

ëa, primarily a verb is or exists (UT:305/317, VT39:7), also imperative be! Notice that ëa is stronger than the simple copula ná, though both may be translated "is". The form ëa is also used as a noun (then more commonly spelt Eä), within Tolkien's mythos a name of the universe that came into being when Ilúvatar granted independent existence to the Music of the Ainur. However, in the text before us the word is apparently used to translate heaven (unless, as we suggested above, i ëa han ëa actually means *who is above the universe). The verb ëa is the basic word here, since its application as a noun is secondary: "The Elves called the World, the Universe, Eä – It is" (footnote in Letters:284). "This world, or Universe, [the Creator] calls Eä, an Elvish word that means 'It is' or 'Let it Be' " (MR:330). As for the primitive form of this word, strong hints are provided by what Tolkien wrote in Quendi and Eldar (VT39:6-7): "The former presence of intervocalic ñ, later lost in Quenya, could be detected by consideration of the relations between tëa 'indicates' and...tengwe 'sign', and comparison with ëa 'exists' beside engwe 'thing'." Tengwe sign represents primitive teñ-wê sign, token (VT39:17), the letter ñ denoting "ng" as in English "king" (LR:346, MR:350). Notice that primitive ñ + w produces Quenya ngw, while intervocalic ñ was lost: Tëa indicates (derived from the same root teñ [WJ:394] as teñ-wê > Q tengwe) is clearly meant to represent earlier *teñâ. Since Tolkien also mentions Quenya ëa exists and engwe thing in this context, we are obviously to assume that these descend from *eñâ and *eñ-wê (though he did not actually provide these primitive forms). It would seem that the primitive stem having to do with existence was *eñ- (*eñe). *Eñâ would be a primitive A-stem verb, the origin of Q ëa meaning is or exists. Yet ëa may also be interpreted as an imperative be!, and this meaning is of course relevant for the use of Eä as a name of the universe, since Eru gave existence to the Music of the Ainur by this very command: "I know the desire of your minds that what ye have seen should verily be...even as ye yourselves are, and yet other. Therefore I say: Eä! Let these things Be!" (Ainulindalë.) This imperative ëa may be referred to *eñ(e) â, the latter element being the primitive imperative particle, "originally independent and variable in place" (WJ:365; compare the primitive imperative phrase hek(e) â > Quenya heka! be gone!, WJ:364-365). – The fact that the word ëa appears in the Lord's Prayer translation is an important clue regarding the dating, for this word (or at least Eä/Ëa as a name of the universe) does not seem to have entered Tolkien's mythos before 1951; see LR:338, MR:7, 31.

elye, emphatic pronoun: you, thou. Previously attested in Namárië (there spelt with a diaeresis: elyë); see emme below for further discussion. [If as elye should really read aselye in one word, the emphatic pronoun elye does not after all occur in this text.]

emme, emphatic pronoun: exclusive we. Also with dative ending: emmen, (for) us. A new word in itself, but one that reassuringly confirms a pattern that has long been recognized: that pronominal endings can be turned into independent, emphatic pronouns by prefixing e-. Until now, our sole example has been elyë thou (or, since it is emphatic, even thou) in Namárië. This is an emphatic, independent pronoun corresponding to the pronominal ending -lyë, as is clearly seen in the final line of the song: Nai hiruvalyë Valimar! Nai elyë hiruva! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar! Maybe even thou shalt find it! For the ending -mme denoting exclusive we, see firuvamme; emme thus has the same relationship to the ending -mme as elye has to the ending -lye. (We know only one more emphatic pronoun, the first person form inye I in LR:61, that connects with the pronominal ending -nye. The form inye rather than **enyë has been regarded as an exception to the normal rule [the prefixed i- in this case may reflect the stem-vowel of ni²- I, LR:378]. The form emme supports the theory that inye is an exception, the prefix used to derive emphatic pronouns normally being e- instead.) The dative form emmen indicates that emphatic pronouns can take case endings, our first example of this.

Eruo, inflected noun God's, genitive of Eru, God or literally the One. The genitive of Eru was already attested in the phrase Oienkarmë Eruo the One's [Eru's, God's] perpetual production (MR:329, 471); as for the genitive ending -o, see separate entry. All sources agree that the divine name Eru (that the Elves pronounced on solemn occasions only, WJ:402/MR:211) is to be interpreted the One: "There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar..." (Ainulindalë). When asked what her Mannish tribe called God, Andreth told the Elven-king Finrod that it was "as it is with you [the Elves], but different only in sound: The One" (MR:352). Beyond such simple statements of what Eru means, its etymology as a Quenya word is not explicitly discussed anywhere (see SD:432 concerning Êru as an Adûnaic word, though). However, in Letters:384, Tolkien referred to the "important element er (in Elvish) = 'one, single, alone'." One reason for its being "important" would presumably be that it is transparently the basis of the divine name. In the Etymologies and the Qenya Lexicon, this "element" appears as ere- be alone, deprived (LR:356) or remain alone (QL:36). In these sources the stem-vowel is reduplicated and suffixed, ere instead of just er, but this is merely another way of quoting the stem. (See firuvamme for the stem phir- also being quoted as phiri with the vowel repeated; see also quanta regarding the stem kwat- also being quoted as kwata.) The name Eru must be derived from the simplest form er as in Letters:384, without ómataina (reduplicated and suffixed stem-vowel). The primitive form of the name would be *Erû, including the same masculine/animate ending -û as in the primitive words atû father (LR:349 s.v. ata- father) and kherû master (Letters:178, 282, stem given as kher- possess, cf. LR:364). Whether Tolkien meant that this name actually occurred in the primitive language is of course another matter: what they knew about Eru the Eldar must have learnt after they got to Valinor and were taught by the Valar (WJ:402 s.v. Eru). The Quenya name Eru is indeed said to be an Elvish translation of a Valarin name that is nowhere revealed (WJ:402 cf. 403). In any case, a name meaning the One can obviously be applied to the God of the monotheistic Judeo-Christian conception, so Tolkien could use it to translate God when rendering Christian/Catholic texts into Quenya.

Eruanno, noun in genitive: of grace, transparently a compound incorporating Eru God, the One (see above). The nominative could also be #Eruanno (since the genitive ending -o is "invisible" when added to words already ending in -o, cf. i·Kiryamo the Mariner's in UT:8), but this would leave the final element of the compound obscure, since no word *anno is known. The only other possible nominative is #Eruanna, which would be a meaningful word: several sources (e.g. the Silmarillion Appendix) give anna as the Quenya word for gift. In the Etymologies, LR:348, it is derived from a prepositional stem ana¹- to, towards, whence primitive anta- to present, give, a verb also found in Quenya and indeed occurring in the text before us (see the entry anta). Perhaps anna gift represents an old past participle *an-nâ formed directly from the root and later used as a noun: that which is brought forward, presented, given. Whatever the precise etymology of anna, the compound *Eruanna would seem to denote grace perceived as God-gift, the gift of God. In the published corpus, the only other word for grace is lis (list-) from the early Qenya Lexicon (p. 54). This word was developed from a wholly different idea: the root meaning is said to be sweetness (p. 55; cf. lis- honey in the later Etymologies, LR:369, and lisse-miruvóreva of the sweet mead in Namárië in LotR). However, it is interesting to see that the Greek word kharis grace (related to the word kekharitômenê favoured one found in the Greek text of Hail Mary, cf. Luke 1:28) is seemingly equated with God's "gift" in 2 Corinthians 9:14-15: "Their prayers for you, too, show how they are drawn to you on account of all the grace [a form of kharis] that God has given you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift" (quoted from The Jerusalem Bible). Perhaps it was this and similar Biblical passages that inspired #Eruanna as the Quenya word for grace.

Erumande, inflected noun: (as?) in heaven. As indicated in the Syntactical analysis above, it is not altogether certain what the nominative of this word may be. Since the nominative of cemende (as?) on earth is known to be cemen, one plausible assumption could be that the word before us is #Eruman inflected for the same (obscure) case. (This obviously cannot be equated with the Eruman of LR:356 s.v. ere-, which is a "desert N.E. of Valinor".) Yet this strange "locative" (?) ending could also be #-nde, simplified to #-de when added to a word ending in -n (like cemen); if so the nominative would be #Eruma. Both of these words can be assigned more or less plausible etymologies. #Eruman could incorporate "the Valarin element aman, man 'blessed, holy' [that the Elves] learned from Oromë"; thus #Eruman would identify "heaven" as the blessed and holy abode of the One (PM:357). It is also possible that #man means place, so that #Eruman is The Place of God: A word men place, spot occurs in Etym. (LR:372 s.v. men-), but one word seems to hint that Tolkien later changed it to #man or #mane (perhaps he was troubled by the homophony with the dative pronoun #men for us): In SD:56, in an earlier version of the words spoken by Aragorn at his coronation, the word here or in this place appears as símane (evidently sí-mane this-place – cf. símen in Fíriel's Song, see the entry síra). On the other hand, if we assume that the nominative is the shorter form #Eruma, this could incorporate the not uncommon ending -ma, primitive -mâ. While this ending is primarily "a suffix frequent in the names of implements" (WJ:416), which is clearly not appropriate here, it can also take on more general meanings. For instance, the noun #corma "ring" (attested in LotR as part of the compounds Cormarë Ring-day and cormacolindor Ring-bearers, the latter translated in Letters:308) is clearly to be referred to the stem kor- "round" (LR:365). Thus, a #corma is simply a *"round thing". Likewise, #Eruma could – presumably – be simply "a thing (actually a place) associated with God", which "heaven" is. As for the precise meaning or significance of #Eruma(n) (irrespective of its etymology), it would seem to denote the dwelling or presence of the One, evidently the "place" beyond and before Eä where the drama of the Music of the Ainur transpired. This would be "the fair regions that [Eru] had made for the Ainur", where afterwards "of the Ainur some abode still with Ilúvatar beyond the confines of the World" when others left and entered Eä (see the Ainulindalë). Since Melkor also left, we must assume that this was indeed a place where the will of Eru reigned supreme and unchallenged ("thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"). Hence #Eruma(n) can be used to translate English heaven meaning the dwelling of the Deity, though unlike the English word it does not also refer to the sky above the earth; #Eruma(n) would be beyond our universe altogether. The Númenóreans, taught by the Elves, "did not conceive of the sky as a divine residence" (Letters:204) – which may explain why Tolkien did not use the standard Quenya translation of heaven, menel, in this prayer. Menel is just "the region of the stars" (RGEO:72), "the firmament" (SD:401), "the apparent dome in the sky" (MR:387), the "heavens" above the physical earth (see the Silmarillion Index, entry kemen, quoted under cemen above). Menel does not refer to the dwelling of God.

esselya, noun with pronominal ending: thy name. The possessive ending -lya thy, your corresponds to the verbal ending -lyë thou (see elye). In the text before us, -lya also occurs in the words aranielya thy kingdom, indómelya thy will and mónalyo of thy womb, in the latter case with the genitive ending -o added (regularly displacing the final -a of -lya). The ending -lya was previously attested only in the word tielyanna upon your path (UT:22 cf. 51; this is tie-lya-nna path-your-upon), and it corresponds to the ending -lyë for you, thou (see -mma for further discussion of the relationship between the pronominal suffixes for subject and possession). The noun that -lya is here suffixed to, esse name, is a well-known Quenya word, occurring in LotR, Appendix E as the (later) name of Tengwa No. 31. Esse also occurs in various forms and compounds in MR:214-217, reproducing a post-LotR source. It is also found in the Etymologies, where it is derived from a stem es- indicate, name (LR:356). The ancestral form is nowhere given but is probably *essê, the ending -ê often being used to derive nouns denoting intangibles or abstracts: examples include such primitive forms as rênê remembrance (PM:372, base given as ren-), slîwê sickness (LR:386 s.v. sliw-), or tûrê mastery, victory (LR:395 s.v. tur-). *Essê from es- is however not wholly parallel to these formations; instead of lengthening the stem-vowel (which would have produced primitive **êsê > Quenya **éze/ére), the consonant s of the stem is lengthened. This may be compared to the derivation of the primitive noun lassê leaf from the base las- (in the Etymologies las¹-, LR:367; cf. also Letters:282). In the essay Quendi and Eldar, Tolkien explained that the "true relation" of the derivative lassê to its stem las- can be expressed as laS-ê (VT39:9), the capital S denoting a strengthened or lengthened consonant. Similarly, the relation of *essê to its stem es- may be described as *eS-ê. (Compare #massa bread from the stem mbas-; see massamma.)